As many of you are no dubiousness aware, AMD'due south recently launched Radeon RX 500 serial is essentially a rebrand of the RX 400 series, using the same 4th-gen GCN architecture (14nm) admitting with a few minor tweaks.

AMD did yet take the opportunity to release an even smaller (101mm2) Polaris 10 GPU, which can be found at the heart of the Radeon RX 550, an ultra-affordable sub-$100 entry-level carte aimed at the eSports and HTPC markets.

With just 512 SPUs, information technology packs the aforementioned corporeality as the onetime Radeon R7 350 (though that chip used outset-gen GCN cores), nosotros've been wondering how capable the RX 550 is. Featuring 43% fewer SPUs than last generation'due south RX 460, it seems off-white to question if the RX 550 can handle even the most bones eSports titles using pocket-size quality settings at 1080p.

Information technology's patently no heavy hitter, but the RX 550 does have a few advantages over previous featherweight graphics cards. Its cores operate at 1183MHz or higher depending on mill overclocking, while the menu's GDDR5 7Gbps memory allows information technology to boast a rather impressive bandwidth of 112GB/s.

The Asus RX 550 model we take on hand is quite compact and like the GTX 1050, it doesn't require an external power connector. It also packs 4GB of VRAM though I strongly recommend gamers opt for the 2GB version -- there'southward no way the RX 550 has anywhere most plenty horsepower to apply more than than that.

Right now, at $80 the RX 550 is really pretty poor in terms of value. It costs 20% less than the RX 560 despite having half as many SPUs, so you tin can await roughly half the performance, which is hopefully aplenty for playable performance in eSports titles.

Why the involvement in this card at all then? Information technology's my promise that nosotros'll soon see the RX 550 selling for as little as $sixty, a price at which it starts making sense, especially when y'all consider the potential in a $120 combo with the G4560, which is precisely what we're doing here today.

Assuming information technology were available for around $lx, would the RX 550 be worth pairing with the G4560 for an uber-affordable eSports build?

To answer that, I've queued upward 7 popular eSports titles to encounter how this budget combo makes out. For this one, I won't be including any of the graphs that you guys often find in our reviews, though we're looking into an entry-level GPU comparing in the nigh future and you can bet that piece will have a slew of charts.

For now, allow'south encounter how RX 550 and G4560 get forth...

Results

Maxed out using the highest possible quality settings at 1080p, CS:Become played at over 100fps at all times, by and large hovered around 120fps.

Dota 2 was also tested with the quality settings maxed out at 1080p and here the Pentium G4560 and Radeon RX 550 philharmonic allowed for around 60-70fps, though at times did drop into the 50s.

Rocket League was likewise tested with maxed settings at 1080p and this budget hardware combo maintained over 60fps at all times, often between 70 and 90 fps.

To examination StarCraft 2 we watched a pro 2v2 match at normal speed and this simulates real-earth performance quite well. Nosotros tested at 1080p using ultra quality (one step down from extreme) and that saw frame rates sitting effectually 80fps but occasionally dipping to 60fps when things got heated.

Team Fortress 2 was tested using the highest possible quality settings at 1080p, frame rates dropped as low as 100fps and would fasten equally high as 200fps. For the most part though frame rates were somewhere in the middle.

Maxed out at 1080p, World of Tanks played between 40 and 50fps, which resulted in polish performance.

For Overwatch we used the medium quality settings at 1080p and ran a 12-player bot match. Bot matches are generally a fleck more demanding on system resources than online multiplayer with human being players. Gameplay was extremely smoothen with around 60fps for the most part during the heavy battles.

What'due south Non to Like

Information technology shouldn't be long before we see the RX 550 available for around $60, at which point information technology seems like a deal for both casual and eSports gamers.

Many of the titles were tested using their maximum in-game quality settings (or non far from it) and the RX 550 powered through them without hesitation at 1080p. Of course, if frame rates ever become an result, there's plenty of room to reduce quality settings.

With its two cores and four threads, the Pentium G4560 makes for a capable eSports platform, peculiarly when paired with a RX 550 and specially if yous spot that card for $60 or so, which should be possible before long enough given that the card is currently overpriced and should see more competition presently with the coming inflow of Nvidia'due south GT 1030.

Shopping shortcuts:

  • AMD Radeon RX 550 on Amazon, Newegg
  • Intel Pentium G4560 on Amazon, Newegg

The G4560 + RX 550 philharmonic comes as an easy recommendation for anyone seeking the best value from a budget gaming build without researching or risking money on second-hand hardware.